Cape Town and 'Country' Doctors in the Cape Colony during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century

Social History of Medicine

Volumn 10, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 25-52

  Deacon, Harriet ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Cape colony; Medical profession; Professionalization; South Africa

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; HEALTH SERVICE; HISTORY; LICENSING; PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE; RURAL HEALTH CARE; SOCIOECONOMICS; SOUTH AFRICA;

HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; LICENSURE, MEDICAL; PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE; RURAL HEALTH SERVICES; SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS; SOUTH AFRICA; URBAN HEALTH SERVICES;

EID: 0031111812     PISSN: 0951631X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/shm/10.1.25     Document Type: Article

References (187)

1. E. van Heyningen, 'Agents of Empire: The Medical Profession in the Cape Colony, 1880-1910', Medical History, 33 (1989), 450-71, p. 450.
2. The earlier organizations were the South African Medical Society, based in Cape Town (c. 1827-1842) and the Medico-Chirurgical Society, based in Grahamstown during the 1850s. On the South African Medical Association which was founded in 1883, see E. Burrows, A History of Medicine in South Africa up to the End of the Nineteenth Century (Cape Town, 1958), p. 350.
3. The current professional equivalent is the South African Medical and Dental Council which was formally created out of the South African Medical Council in 1944, and has some elected and some appointed members. See E. H. Cluver, Medical and Health Legislation in the Union of South Africa (Cape Town, 1949), pp. 4-5.
4. European medical education was necessary for licensing Cape doctors until the twentieth century and for apothecaries until 1829. This was partly to limit the numbers practising in the Colony (H. Phillips, pers. comm.) and partly because of the low status of Cape education. A plan for a local medical school was mooted in 1858 but it was not achieved until 1912 (Burrows, A History of Medicine, pp. 301-2).
5. For a discussion on this, see A. Digby, Making a Medical Living (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 24-26.
6. Burrows, A History of Medicine, pp. 70, 96, 130, 139.
7. A 'regular' practitioner was one who had been formally trained and/or accredited by a professional body.
8. In this paper the term 'practitioner' or 'medical practitioner' has been used to denote a (regular or irregular) health-care provider, including doctors, apothecaries, and chemists.
9. The term 'doctor' is used in this paper to describe those licensed as 'physicians', 'surgeons', or 'surgeon-apothecaries'. Some were also licensed as 'accoucheurs' (man-midwives) although this was seldom their only title.
10. For analytical purposes the umbrella term 'druggist' will be used in this paper to distinguish those licensed as 'apothecaries' or 'chemists and druggists' from doctors. There was considerable confusion in the use of these terms: a distinction was initially made in law and licensing practice between doctors who sold medical advice, 'apothecaries' who compounded medicines and the 'chemists and druggists' who were vendors of medicine. During the 1830s 'apothecary' came to be used, in official circles at least, in the British sense of general practitioner or surgeon-apothecary and those licensed to compound and sell medicines became 'chemists and druggists'.
11. Centre for the Study of Health Policy, A National Health Service for South Africa, Part 1: The Case for Change (Johannesburg, 1988), pp. 89-92.
12. African National Congress, UNICEF and WHO, A National Health Plan for South Africa (Johannesburg, 1993, reprinted 1994).
13. See also 'New Health Care Plan: Deeble's Spirit Lives on' and 'Plans for Revolutionary Health Care', The Weekly Mail and Guardian, 23 June 1995 and 15 December 1994.
14. E. Friedson, Profession of Medicine: A Study of the Sociology of Applied Knowledge, 2nd. edn. (Chicago, 1988), p. 72.
15. P. J. Corfield, Power and the Professions in Britain, 1700-1850 (London, 1995), p. 24.
16. For a discussion of the sociological definition of a profession, see Friedson, Profession of Medicine, ch. 4.
17. G. Ritzer in S. R. Quah, 'The Social Position and Organisation of the Medical Profession in the Third World: The Case of Singapore', Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 30 (1989), 450-66, p. 451; S. E. D. Shortt, 'Physicians, Science and Status: Issues in the Professionalisation of Anglo-American Medicine in the Nineteenth Century', Medical History, 27 (1983), 51-68, pp. 51-2.
18. G. Ritzer in S. R. Quah, 'The Social Position and Organisation of the Medical Profession in the Third World: The Case of Singapore', Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 30 (1989), 450-66, p. 451; S. E. D. Shortt, 'Physicians, Science and Status: Issues in the Professionalisation of Anglo-American Medicine in the Nineteenth Century', Medical History, 27 (1983), 51-68, pp. 51-2.
19. See for example T. Gelfand, Professionalising Modern Medicine: Paris Surgeons and Medical Science and Institutions in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1980) and W. Frijhoff, 'Non Saris Dignitatis: over de Maatchappelijke Status van Geneeskundigen tijdens de Republiek', Nederlandsche Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 96 (1983), 379-406.
20. See for example T. Gelfand, Professionalising Modern Medicine: Paris Surgeons and Medical Science and Institutions in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1980) and W. Frijhoff, 'Non Saris Dignitatis: over de Maatchappelijke Status van Geneeskundigen tijdens de Republiek', Nederlandsche Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 96 (1983), 379-406.
21. T. J. Johnson 'Imperialism and the Professions: Notes on the Development of Professional Occupations in Britain's Colonies and the New States', in P. Halmos (ed.) Professionalisation and Social Change (Keele, 1973); various articles in R. MacLeod and M. Lewis (eds.) Disease, Medicine and Empire (London, 1988) as well as S. E. D. Shortt, 'Physicians, Science and Status'; R. D. Gidney and W. P. J. Millar, Professional Gentlemen: the Professions in Ninteenth-Century Ontario (Toronto, 1994); T. M. Romano, 'Professional Identity and the Nineteenth-century Ontano Medical Profession, Social History, XXVIII(55) (1995), 77-98; M. Harrison, Public Health in British India: Anglo-Indian Preventive Medicine, 1859-1914 (Cambridge, 1994). On Africa, see for example A. Patton, Physicians, Colonial Racism, and Diaspora in West Africa (Gainesville, 1996) and M. Last and G. L. Chavunduka (eds.) The Professionalization of African Medicine (Manchester, 1986) on traditional healers.
22. T. J. Johnson 'Imperialism and the Professions: Notes on the Development of Professional Occupations in Britain's Colonies and the New States', in P. Halmos (ed.) Professionalisation and Social Change (Keele, 1973); various articles in R. MacLeod and M. Lewis (eds.) Disease, Medicine and Empire (London, 1988) as well as S. E. D. Shortt, 'Physicians, Science and Status'; R. D. Gidney and W. P. J. Millar, Professional Gentlemen: the Professions in Ninteenth-Century Ontario (Toronto, 1994); T. M. Romano, 'Professional Identity and the Nineteenth-century Ontano Medical Profession, Social History, XXVIII(55) (1995), 77-98; M. Harrison, Public Health in British India: Anglo-Indian Preventive Medicine, 1859-1914 (Cambridge, 1994). On Africa, see for example A. Patton, Physicians, Colonial Racism, and Diaspora in West Africa (Gainesville, 1996) and M. Last and G. L. Chavunduka (eds.) The Professionalization of African Medicine (Manchester, 1986) on traditional healers.
23. T. J. Johnson 'Imperialism and the Professions: Notes on the Development of Professional Occupations in Britain's Colonies and the New States', in P. Halmos (ed.) Professionalisation and Social Change (Keele, 1973); various articles in R. MacLeod and M. Lewis (eds.) Disease, Medicine and Empire (London, 1988) as well as S. E. D. Shortt, 'Physicians, Science and Status'; R. D. Gidney and W. P. J. Millar, Professional Gentlemen: the Professions in Ninteenth-Century Ontario (Toronto, 1994); T. M. Romano, 'Professional Identity and the Nineteenth-century Ontano Medical Profession, Social History, XXVIII(55) (1995), 77-98; M. Harrison, Public Health in British India: Anglo-Indian Preventive Medicine, 1859-1914 (Cambridge, 1994). On Africa, see for example A. Patton, Physicians, Colonial Racism, and Diaspora in West Africa (Gainesville, 1996) and M. Last and G. L. Chavunduka (eds.) The Professionalization of African Medicine (Manchester, 1986) on traditional healers.
24. T. J. Johnson 'Imperialism and the Professions: Notes on the Development of Professional Occupations in Britain's Colonies and the New States', in P. Halmos (ed.) Professionalisation and Social Change (Keele, 1973); various articles in R. MacLeod and M. Lewis (eds.) Disease, Medicine and Empire (London, 1988) as well as S. E. D. Shortt, 'Physicians, Science and Status'; R. D. Gidney and W. P. J. Millar, Professional Gentlemen: the Professions in Ninteenth-Century Ontario (Toronto, 1994); T. M. Romano, 'Professional Identity and the Nineteenth-century Ontano Medical Profession, Social History, XXVIII(55) (1995), 77-98; M. Harrison, Public Health in British India: Anglo-Indian Preventive Medicine, 1859-1914 (Cambridge, 1994). On Africa, see for example A. Patton, Physicians, Colonial Racism, and Diaspora in West Africa (Gainesville, 1996) and M. Last and G. L. Chavunduka (eds.) The Professionalization of African Medicine (Manchester, 1986) on traditional healers.
25. T. J. Johnson 'Imperialism and the Professions: Notes on the Development of Professional Occupations in Britain's Colonies and the New States', in P. Halmos (ed.) Professionalisation and Social Change (Keele, 1973); various articles in R. MacLeod and M. Lewis (eds.) Disease, Medicine and Empire (London, 1988) as well as S. E. D. Shortt, 'Physicians, Science and Status'; R. D. Gidney and W. P. J. Millar, Professional Gentlemen: the Professions in Ninteenth-Century Ontario (Toronto, 1994); T. M. Romano, 'Professional Identity and the Nineteenth-century Ontano Medical Profession, Social History, XXVIII(55) (1995), 77-98; M. Harrison, Public Health in British India: Anglo-Indian Preventive Medicine, 1859-1914 (Cambridge, 1994). On Africa, see for example A. Patton, Physicians, Colonial Racism, and Diaspora in West Africa (Gainesville, 1996) and M. Last and G. L. Chavunduka (eds.) The Professionalization of African Medicine (Manchester, 1986) on traditional healers.
26. T. J. Johnson 'Imperialism and the Professions: Notes on the Development of Professional Occupations in Britain's Colonies and the New States', in P. Halmos (ed.) Professionalisation and Social Change (Keele, 1973); various articles in R. MacLeod and M. Lewis (eds.) Disease, Medicine and Empire (London, 1988) as well as S. E. D. Shortt, 'Physicians, Science and Status'; R. D. Gidney and W. P. J. Millar, Professional Gentlemen: the Professions in Ninteenth-Century Ontario (Toronto, 1994); T. M. Romano, 'Professional Identity and the Nineteenth-century Ontano Medical Profession, Social History, XXVIII(55) (1995), 77-98; M. Harrison, Public Health in British India: Anglo-Indian Preventive Medicine, 1859-1914 (Cambridge, 1994). On Africa, see for example A. Patton, Physicians, Colonial Racism, and Diaspora in West Africa (Gainesville, 1996) and M. Last and G. L. Chavunduka (eds.) The Professionalization of African Medicine (Manchester, 1986) on traditional healers.
27. T. J. Johnson 'Imperialism and the Professions: Notes on the Development of Professional Occupations in Britain's Colonies and the New States', in P. Halmos (ed.) Professionalisation and Social Change (Keele, 1973); various articles in R. MacLeod and M. Lewis (eds.) Disease, Medicine and Empire (London, 1988) as well as S. E. D. Shortt, 'Physicians, Science and Status'; R. D. Gidney and W. P. J. Millar, Professional Gentlemen: the Professions in Ninteenth-Century Ontario (Toronto, 1994); T. M. Romano, 'Professional Identity and the Nineteenth-century Ontano Medical Profession, Social History, XXVIII(55) (1995), 77-98; M. Harrison, Public Health in British India: Anglo-Indian Preventive Medicine, 1859-1914 (Cambridge, 1994). On Africa, see for example A. Patton, Physicians, Colonial Racism, and Diaspora in West Africa (Gainesville, 1996) and M. Last and G. L. Chavunduka (eds.) The Professionalization of African Medicine (Manchester, 1986) on traditional healers.
28. Corfield, Power and the Professions, pp. 12, 18, 23.
29. Gidney and Millar, Professional Gentlemen, p. 12.
30. Gidney and Millar, Professional Gentlemen, pp. 3-11.
31. J. H. Warner, The Therapeutic Perspective: Medical Practice, Knowledge and Identity in America, 1820-1885 (Cambridge, Mass., 1986), pp. 1, 15-16.
32. Gidney and Millar, Professional Gentlemen, p. 55.
33. See W. M. Freund, 'The Cape under the Transitional Governments 1795-1814', in R. Elphick and H. Giliomee (eds) The Shaping of South African Society, 1652-1840, 2nd edn. (Cape Town, 1990), pp. 325-57.
34. See for example Gelfand, Professionalising Modern medicine, p. xi and Frijhoff, 'Non Satis Dignitatis', pp. 380-1.
35. See for example Gelfand, Professionalising Modern medicine, p. xi and Frijhoff, 'Non Satis Dignitatis', pp. 380-1.
36. I. Loudon, 'Medical Practitioners 1750-1850 and the Period of Medical Reform in Britain', in A. Wear (ed.) Medicine in Society (Cambridge, 1992), 219-47, p. 229.
37. M. J. Peterson, The Medical Profession in mid-Victorian London (Berkeley, 1978), p. 38.
38. Gidney and Millar, Professional Gentlemen, p. 6.
39. B. Gandevia, 'A History of General Practice in Australia', Medical Journal of Australia, 2 (1972), 381-5, p. 381.
40. Harrison, Public Health in British India, ch. 1.
41. Van Heyningen, 'Agents of Empire', p. 450.
42. D. and R. Porter 'Introduction', in D. and R. Porter (eds.) Doctors, Politics and Society: Historical Essays (Amsterdam, 1993), p. 3.
43. Johnson 'Imperialism and the Professions' suggested that corporate patronage by colonial governments hampered professionalization. Canada also had a state-appointed regulatory body until 1831: see B. R. Tunis, 'Medical Licensing in Lower Canada: The Dispute over Canada's First Medical Degree', in S. E. D. Shortt (ed.) Medicine in Canadian Society: Historical Perspectives (Montreal, 1981), 137-63, p. 138.
44. Friedson, Profession of Medicine, pp. 24-5.
45. Quah, 'The Social Position', p. 454.
46. J. McClellan III, Colonialism and Science: San Domingue in the Old Regime (Baltimore, 1992), p. 132.
47. Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 300.
48. N. and J. Parry, The Rise of the Medical Profession (London, 1976), p. 131.
49. R. D. Gidney and W. Millar, 'The Origins of Organised Medicine in Ontario, 1850-1869', in C. G. Roland (ed.) Health, Disease and Medicine: Essays in Canadian History (Toronto, 1984), pp. 65-95, p. 72.
50. Gidney and Millar, Professional Gentlemen, p. 88.
51. See L. Guelke, 'The Early European Settlement of South Africa', Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, 1974.
52. A. Bank, The Decline of Urban Slavery at the Cape, 1806 to 1843 (Cape Town, 1991), Appendix Four.
53. Burrows, A History of Medicine, pp. 186-7.
54. On this, see C. Crais, White Supremacy and Black Resistance in Pre-Industrial South Africa (Cambridge, 1991), Part Three. Also, D. W. Rush, 'Aspects of the Growth of Trade and the Development of Ports in the Cape Colony, 1795-1882', MA thesis, University of Cape Town (UCT), 1972.
55. On this, see C. Crais, White Supremacy and Black Resistance in Pre-Industrial South Africa (Cambridge, 1991), Part Three. Also, D. W. Rush, 'Aspects of the Growth of Trade and the Development of Ports in the Cape Colony, 1795-1882', MA thesis, University of Cape Town (UCT), 1972.
56. Memorial of 'subscribers, merchants, traders and others of Cape Town', 16 September 1807, Cape Archives (CA), Cape Town, CO 3864, doc.423.
57. Digby, Making a Medical Living, p. 226.
58. These figures were compiled from a database of all medical practitioners in the Cape Colony from 1800-60, compiled from various sources by the author (hereafter Cape Doctors Database).
59. A general practitioner in Britain was most commonly a doctor with qualifications in medicine and surgery - surgeon or surgeon-apothecary - who was a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) and Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries (LSA).
60. Van Heyningen, 'Agents of Empire', p. 452.
61. Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 88.
62. Ibid., p. 150.
63. Ibid., p. 147.
64. Ibid., p. 150.
65. Cape Doctors Database.
66. Capt. H. Butler, 'Four Months in Cape Colony', Chambers Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts, 173 (London, 1846), 1-32, p. 31. A skilling is a unit of Dutch currency.
67. Medical Committee (MC) to Colonial Office (CO), 27 January 1854, CA, CO 640. Cape Town then contained 25,000 people and the total population of the colony was around 270,000 (W. J. Black, 'On the Sanitary State of Cape Town', The Sanitary Record, 17 August 1877, p. 2 and Census of 1865, G20-1866, CA, CCP 4/11/1, p. viii.
68. This excluded apothecaries, chemists, druggists or midwives but included some unlicensed practitioners.
69. Census of 1865, G20-1866, CA, CCP 4/11/1, p. 135: 182,000 of these would have been classified 'white'.
70. See the preamble to 'A Bill for Amending the Laws relating to the Practice and Sale of Medicine', Cape of Good Hope Government Gazette no. 2 706, 8 April 1856.
71. 'A Bill', Cape of Good Hope Government Gazette no. 2 706, 8 April 1856.
72. See also Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 332.
73. Caledon to Castlereagh, 25 June 1808, London Public Record Office (PRO), PRO 48/2, Original Corr., 1808. See also Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 72.
74. Burrows, A History of Medicine, pp. 99-100.
75. See also Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 300.
76. Parry, The Rise of the Medical Profession, p. 131 and W. J. Reader, Professional Men: The Rise of the Professional Classes in Nineteenth-century England (London, 1966), p. 67.
77. Parry, The Rise of the Medical Profession, p. 131 and W. J. Reader, Professional Men: The Rise of the Professional Classes in Nineteenth-century England (London, 1966), p. 67.
78. I. Loudon, 'The Vile Race of Quacks with which this Country is Infested', in W. F. Bynum and R. Porter (eds.) Medical Fringe and Medical Orthodoxy 1750-1850 (London, 1987), 106-28, p. 108.
79. I. Loudon, 'Two Thousand Medical Men in 1847', Society for the Social History of Medicine Bulletin, 33 (1983), 4-8, p. 4.
80. Freund, 'The Cape under the Transitional Governments', pp. 345-46.
81. On the impact of British rule on the Cape, see M. Boucher and N. Penn (eds.) Britain at the Cape, 1795-1803 (Johannesburg, 1992). See also Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 71.
82. On the impact of British rule on the Cape, see M. Boucher and N. Penn (eds.) Britain at the Cape, 1795-1803 (Johannesburg, 1992). See also Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 71.
83. Freund, 'The Cape under the Transitional Governments', pp. 343-4.
84. Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 72
85. Burrows, A History of Medicine, pp. 71-2.
86. Second Report of the Supreme Medical Committee (SMC), 31 July 1807, quoted in Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 71.
87. Report by the SMC, 3 April 1807, CA, VC 559; Burrows, A History of Medicine, pp. 72, 80.
88. The Royal College of Physicians in London underlined the distinction between apothecaries and doctors by saying that the former were tradesmen because they sold medicines rather than charging for attendance or advice (Reader, Professional Men, p. 40).
89. A. Malan, 'Households of the Cape, 1750-1850: Inventories and the Archaeological Record', Ph.D. thesis, UCT, 1993, p. 182.
90. Cape Government Proclamation of 24 April 1807. On the regulations, see also Burrows, A History of Medicine, pp. 72, 78-9.
91. Cape Government Proclamation of 18 August 1807. See also Burrows, A History of Medicine, pp. 72-3.
92. Memorial of various men, 27 September 1807, CA, CO 3864, doc. 429.
93. Some, like J. H. Richter (a surgeon in the Cape Town hospital in 1800, see E. Rosenthal (ed.) Cape Directory, 1800 (Cape Town, 1969)), were not allowed licences in 1807 but were later allowed to practice in the country districts (Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 74). Wedemeyer and L'Amour de Manille were given licenses to practice as country surgeons although they probably had no formal certificates (Burrows, A_History of Medicine, pp. 75, 78). See also the similar case of Mr. Lyons (P. Laidler and M. Gelfand, South Africa: Its Medical History (Cape Town, 1971), p. 106).
94. Some, like J. H. Richter (a surgeon in the Cape Town hospital in 1800, see E. Rosenthal (ed.) Cape Directory, 1800 (Cape Town, 1969)), were not allowed licences in 1807 but were later allowed to practice in the country districts (Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 74). Wedemeyer and L'Amour de Manille were given licenses to practice as country surgeons although they probably had no formal certificates (Burrows, A_History of Medicine, pp. 75, 78). See also the similar case of Mr. Lyons (P. Laidler and M. Gelfand, South Africa: Its Medical History (Cape Town, 1971), p. 106).
95. Some, like J. H. Richter (a surgeon in the Cape Town hospital in 1800, see E. Rosenthal (ed.) Cape Directory, 1800 (Cape Town, 1969)), were not allowed licences in 1807 but were later allowed to practice in the country districts (Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 74). Wedemeyer and L'Amour de Manille were given licenses to practice as country surgeons although they probably had no formal certificates (Burrows, A_History of Medicine, pp. 75, 78). See also the similar case of Mr. Lyons (P. Laidler and M. Gelfand, South Africa: Its Medical History (Cape Town, 1971), p. 106).
96. Some, like J. H. Richter (a surgeon in the Cape Town hospital in 1800, see E. Rosenthal (ed.) Cape Directory, 1800 (Cape Town, 1969)), were not allowed licences in 1807 but were later allowed to practice in the country districts (Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 74). Wedemeyer and L'Amour de Manille were given licenses to practice as country surgeons although they probably had no formal certificates (Burrows, A_History of Medicine, pp. 75, 78). See also the similar case of Mr. Lyons (P. Laidler and M. Gelfand, South Africa: Its Medical History (Cape Town, 1971), p. 106).
97. See for example, Lion to MC, n.d. 1807, MC Correspondence, CA, MC 14.
98. The MC licensed all but one of the doctors permitted to vaccinate by the Batavian 'Geneeskundige Commissie' or 'Medical Commission' (see Burrows, A History of Medicine, pp. 74, 100).
99. Freund, 'The Cape under the Transitional Governments', pp. 349-50.
100. Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 79.
101. Ibid., p. 80.
102. Ibid., p. 84.
103. The South African Almanac and Directory for 1835 (Cape Town, 1835), p. 135.
104. See Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 300 and Minutes of Proceedings of MC, 1842-48, CA, MC 3; Letters of appointment in 1846, Letters from the MC, 1837-54, CA, MC 10.
105. Liesching to Governor, 26 September 1834, CO Correspondence, CA, CO 427.
106. Ibid.
107. Minutes of the South African Medical Society, 6 April 1828, UCT Medical School Library, Cape Town, MHA 610.6.SOU.
108. For example the 'Malay doctor' Abdol Mank van Batavia and the midwife Zilvia van de Kaap (probably slaves) were living in Cape Town in 1812 (African Court Calendar for 1812 (Cape Town, 812), directory). The 'Malay doctor' Abdol Maluk listed in the 1820 directory may have been a freed slave, possibly the same Abdol Mank (African Court Calendar and Directory for 1820 (Cape Town, 1820), directory). In the eighteenth century slaves and free blacks clearly also had medical practices: medical bills from Maria van Macassar and the 'vreije dogter Flora Classe van de Caab' (the free maid Flora of the Cape) to the estate of Mrs. Kotsenaar, CA, MOOC 14/1, part 2, in 1713. On Khoi doctors, see 'Witchcraft in the Nineteenth Century', South African Commercial Advertiser, 7 February 1829.
109. Government Proclamation, 26 September 1823, Proclamations for 1823, CA, CO 5824.
110. See for example Fiscal to SMC, 17 October 1809, MC Miscellaneous, CA, MC 14 and MC to CO, 28 November 1840, CA, CO 490.
111. Emerson to Bird, 18 October 1808, Sundry Committees 1808, CA, CO 9 and Minutes, 25 September 1827, MC Minutes 1825-31, CA, MC 1.
112. P. McMagh, The Three Lieschings: Their Times and Contribution to Cape Medicine, 1800-43 (Cape Town, 1992), pp. 90-1.
113. Laidler and Gelfand, South Africa: Its Medical History, p. 161 and MC to Bell, 9 January 1837, MC Minutes 1834-12, CA, MC 2.
114. M. G. Ashworth (ed.) The Life and Fortunes of John Pocock of Cape Town 1814-1876 (Cape Town, 1974), p. 65.
115. C. H. Price, 'J. T. Pocock-Pioneer-Pharmacist, Part II', South African Pharmaceutical Journal, 27 (1961), 15-21, p. 17.
116. S. N. Eaton, Journal by Sarah Norman Eaton from Leaving London (Mimeo, c. 1818), p. 57.
117. See for example MC Minutes 1834-42, Cape Archives, Cape Town, South Africa (CA), MC 2.
118. MC to CO, 28 January 1830, MC Minutes 1825-31, CA, MC 1.
119. Government Proclamation, 26 September 1823, Proclamations for 1823, CA, CO 5824.
120. Instructions for District Surgeons (DS), 29 July 1829, Government Proclamations for 1828-31, CA, CO 5829.
121. Barry to CO, 29 October 1823, Letters from Medical Inspector CA, CO 180.
122. Merchant-apothecaries owned large drug-retail houses and sold local and imported medicines in the country districts as well as Cape Town. They included Liesching, Kunhardt, and Juritz.
123. Memorial of F. W. Ernst, n.d. 1821, CA, CO 3920 doc.242.
124. Instructions for DS, 29 July 1829, Government Proclamations for 1828-31, CA, CO 5829.
125. Minutes, 22 November 1844, MC Minutes 1842-48, CA, MC 3.
126. Thanks to Wayne Dooling for this information: from 1839-45, one Cape Town and six country doctors went bankrupt; during the 1860s, one Cape Town and nine country doctors went bankrupt.
127. Louis Liesching and Peter Chiappini, whose fathers' businesses retailed patent medicines, were MC members from 1825 and in 1839-40 respectively. A MC member was also appointed from one of the large apothecary firms in Cape Town by the 1830s.
128. Murray and Liesching to Bell, 29 January 1829, Letters from MC, CA, CO 361.
129. Memorial of G. Krebs and P. McCabe, 26 August 1835, CA, CO 3980, doc.114.
130. Hare to Napier, 31 August 1842, MC Minutes 1842-48, CA, MC 3 and Memorial of Orpen, 1 August 1849, Memorials 1849, CA, CO 4048.
131. MC to CO, 13 September 1842, MC Minutes 1842-48, CA, MC 3.
132. Proposals for new legislation, 30 July 1836, MC Minutes 1834-42, CA, MC 2.
133. Laing to Montagu, Memorandum n.d. 1850, CA, CO 606.
134. MC to CO, 10 February 1852, CA, CO 606.
135. Memorial of C. J. Kemper, 30 March 1846, CA, CO 4029, doc.368.
136. Correspondence enclosed with McCabe to MC, 17 October 1834, Letters to CO, CA, CO 427 and Minutes, 24 November 1835, MC Minutes 1834-42, CA, MC 2.
137. Continental surgeons and physicians were restricted to consultation and apothecaries were only allowed to make up prescriptions (Loudon, 'Medical Practitioners', p. 228). Under the 1815 Apothecaries Act in Britain, however, 'surgeon-apothecaries' were licensed to prescribe and dispense drugs. Apothecaries were thus absorbed into the lower ranks of the doctors, later known as general practitioners, while chemists and druggists become pharmacists. (Reader, Professional Men, pp. 40-1).
138. Barry to Sec. to Govt., 23 June 1825, Letters from Sundry Committees 1825, CA, CO 226.
139. MC to CO, 29 July 1840, 2 July 1841 and 5 August 1841, MC Minutes 1834-42, CA, MC 2.
140. Minutes of the South African Medical Society, 6 August 1833, UCT Medical School Library, Cape Town, MHA 610.6.SOU.
141. Thanks to Wayne Dooling for information compiled from bankruptcy registrations in the Cape of Good Hope Government Gazette, 1839-69: 17 country doctors and 4 country apothecaries went bankrupt during this period.
142. The 1836 Ordinance was in effect only until 1839 because it was not approved in London within the specified time (Porter to Way, 8 March 1856, 'Report of the Select Commitee appointed . . . to Consider and Report on the Bill for Amending the Laws relating to the Practice and Sale of Medicine in the Colony', Cape Parliamentary Papers (CPP), A14 SC-1856, p. 10).
143. Memorial of C. J. Kemper, 30 March 1846, CA, CO 4029, doc.368.
144. See Malan, 'Households of the Cape', p. 182.
145. P. Russell, A Wish of Distinction': Colonial Gentility and Femininity (Melbourne, 1994), p. 4.
146. J. P. Greene, 'Changing Identity in the Britrish Caribbean: Barbados as a Case Study', in N. Canny and A. Pagden (eds.), Colonial Identity in the Atlantic World 1500-1800 (Princeton, 1987), p. 214. See K. Mackenzie, 'The South African Commercial Advertiser and the Making of Middle- class Identity in Early Nineteenth-century Cape Town', MA thesis, UCT, 1993, pp. 30, 59, 95, 133-4.
147. J. P. Greene, 'Changing Identity in the Britrish Caribbean: Barbados as a Case Study', in N. Canny and A. Pagden (eds.), Colonial Identity in the Atlantic World 1500-1800 (Princeton, 1987), p. 214. See K. Mackenzie, 'The South African Commercial Advertiser and the Making of Middle-class Identity in Early Nineteenth-century Cape Town', MA thesis, UCT, 1993, pp. 30, 59, 95, 133-4.
148. In an interesting analysis of the libel case against Abercrombie and Chiappini (see below), Mackenzie shows how Cape Town doctors employed the language of gentlemanly honour and professional ethics in defending their access to clients (K. Mackenzie, 'Defending One's Honour', draft chapter of Ph.D thesis, University of Oxford).
149. See I. Inkster, 'Marginal Men: Aspects of the Social Role of the Medical Community in Sheffield 1790-1850', in J. Woodward and D. Richards (eds.) Health Care and Popular Medicine in Nineteenth-Century England (New York, 1977) and Peterson, The Medical Profession.
150. Minutes of the South African Medical Society, 6 October 1831, UCT Medical School Library, Cape Town, MHA 610.6.SOU.
151. J. Jenkinson, Scottish Medical Societies 1731-1939: Their History and Records (Edinburgh, 1993), p. 5.
152. Burrows, A History of Medicine, pp. 131-2.
153. Bailey vs. Abercrombie and Chiappini, Case 36, Civil Cases in Supreme Court, 1841, CA, CSC 2/1/1/47.
154. Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 82. Letter from Government Council's Clerk to MC, 2 November 1830, Correspondence between CO and MC 1829-50, CA, CO 4372.
155. Vaccine Committee to Colonial Secretary, 18 March 1812, Letters to CO from Sundry Committees in 1812, CA, CO 36.
156. Enclosure in Bird to SMC, 14 July 1808, MC Correspondence, CA, MC 14.
157. Somerset to Bathurst, 7 January 1822, General Dispatches to Government House, CA, GH 23/7, p. 7.
158. Burrows, A History of Medicine, pp. 144-5.
159. Although some of these men were Dutch or German in origin they would have distinguished themselves socially from Dutch-Afrikaners in the country. In the 1830s the 'Dutch and other natives of Cape Town' called themselves Kapenaars rather than Afrikaners (who were 'the other native white inhabitants of the colony'), N. Polson, [pseud, for Peter Nicolson] A Subaltern's Sick Leave, or Rough Notes of a Visit in Search of Health to China and the Cape of Good Hope (Calcutta, 1837), p. 80.
160. Parry, The Rise of the Medical Profession, p. 131 and L. Rosner, Medical Education in the Age of Improvement: Edinburgh Students and Apprentices, 1760-1826 (Edinburgh, 1991), p. 19.
161. Parry, The Rise of the Medical Profession, p. 131 and L. Rosner, Medical Education in the Age of Improvement: Edinburgh Students and Apprentices, 1760-1826 (Edinburgh, 1991), p. 19.
162. Account book of Dr Peter Chiappini 1842-46, UCT Medical School Library (Cape Town), MHA 610.6 SOU, 1842, p. 73 and 1843, pp. 70-1.
163. Stellenbosch doctor Endres called in Dr. Wehr from Cape Town prior to two difficult operations in 1811 (Endres' Bill, 9 February 1811, MC Miscellaneous Accounts, CA, MC 24.). Country apothecary John Addy transferred difficult cases to Cape Town when possible (Memorial, n.d. 1826, Memorials received 1826, CA, CO 3932, doc.520). There was some precedent for co-operation between apothecaries and doctors before the regulations of 1807. The apothecary Frederich Roege called in Dr Heurtley in some cases he attended in Cape Town before 1803 (Estate of Roege, Inventories 1807, CA, MOOC 8/24, doc.7).
164. M. J. Muncaster, 'Medical Services and the Medical Profession in Norfolk, 1815-1911', Ph.D. thesis, University of East Anglia, 1976, p. 19.
165. 'A Bill', Cape of Good Hope Government Gazette no. 2 706, 8 April 1856.
166. 'Report of the Select Committee', CPP, A14 SC-1856, pp. iii-iv.
167. Memorial of C. Orpen, 20 September 1849, Memorials N-P, 1849, CA, CO 4048, doc.57.
168. Laidler and Gelfand, South Africa: Its Medical History, p. 211.
169. Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 127. See also the Cape Town Medical Gazette, 1(1) (1847), p. 1.
170. Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 127. See also the Cape Town Medical Gazette, 1(1) (1847), p. 1.
171. Ibid., p. 147.
172. See MC 10, Letters from CO to MC 1837-54.
173. There were three Cape Town doctors on the committee who were members of the colonial parliament, and one of whom had recently practised in the oudying town of Beaufort. It also included a Cape Town druggist (who was not a merchant-apothecary) and a country druggist vociferous in his condemnation of unregulated competition.
174. Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 133.
175. Cape Town Medical Gazette, 1(3) (1847), p. 32. See also Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 350 and C. Blumberg, 'The South African Medical Society and its Library', Cabo, 2(4) (1978), 18-25.
176. Cape Town Medical Gazette, 1(3) (1847), p. 32. See also Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 350 and C. Blumberg, 'The South African Medical Society and its Library', Cabo, 2(4) (1978), 18-25.
177. Cape Town Medical Gazette, 1(3) (1847), p. 32. See also Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 350 and C. Blumberg, 'The South African Medical Society and its Library', Cabo, 2(4) (1978), 18-25.
178. T. J. Lucas, Camp Life and Sport in South Africa (Johannesburg, 1975), pp. 33-5.
179. N. Erlank, 'Letters Home: The Experiences and Perceptions of Middle-class British Women at the Cape, 1820-1850', MA thesis, UCT, 1995, p. 111.
180. See records of addresses to the society, Miscellaneous Collections, CA, M 132(b).
181. L. G. Cough, A Short Medical History of Grahamstown (Grahamstown, 1976), pp. 20-1.
182. The Cape of Good Hope Almanac for 1845 (Cape Town, 1845), directory. Although the Cape Town street directories are clearly inaccurate in documenting the lower-status professions like midwifery they should be more accurate for licensed doctors and apothecaries.
183. Thanks to Wayne Dooling for this information: four apothecaries and one doctor went bankrupt in Cape Town between 1851-57 compared to one apothecary and two doctors before 1851.
184. Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 139. See also Prof. Noble (ed.) The Cape and its People, and Other Essays (Cape Town, 1869), p. 38.
185. Burrows, A History of Medicine, p. 139. See also Prof. Noble (ed.) The Cape and its People, and Other Essays (Cape Town, 1869), p. 38.
186. Thanks to Wayne Dooling for this information. Doctors (especially those outside Cape Town) suffered much greater risk of insolvency than apothecaries in 1864-69 compared to the previous period of economic stress in 1839-45 when doctors and apothecaries were more equally vulnerable.
187. Loudon, 'Medical Practitioners', p. 246.